Though the new variant of Covid-19 has put scientists across the globe on alert, top Health officials in Odisha are not sure of the imminent danger arising out of the developing situation.
“The virus will keep on mutating as long as it exists. But, we don’t have any facts as yet about the impending threat due to the emergence of the new variants of Covid-19,” said State Health Director Bijay Mohapatra.
“Even the World Health Organisation (WHO) is not sure about the effect of the new variant. They have no clue whether it will have a positive or negative effect. It’s too early to predict the threat. Let’s wait for the facts. We will take appropriate majors after considering all the facts,” said Mohapatra.
Shedding light on the efficiency of nasal drops, the health official said, “As per the scientific facts, nasal drops are working well.”
Meanwhile, Covid-19 cases continued to dip in Odisha as the State recorded 1480 positive cases in the last 24 hours taking the overall tally to 12,73,003.
As many as 334 positives were detected in the 0-18 year age group. A total of 862 cases were reported from quarantine while 618 are local transmission cases, as per the Information and Public Relations (I&PR) Department.
As per the Health Department, at least 21 patients succumbed to the disease which took the cumulative death toll due to Covid-19 to 8,818.
The active cases in the State stand at 15,980 as a total of 12,48,152 people have so far recovered from the disease, including 3,126 on Wednesday, said I&PR Department data.
A total of 2,81,66,786 samples have been tested including 66,021 in the last 24 hours.